Former NHL player and current Vancouver sports radio host Ray Ferraro joined Mut & Merloni Wednesday to preview Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and give some perspective from the Canucks fan base. To hear the interview, check out the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

Ferraro said that despite another Boston blowout in Game 6, Vancouver fans aren’t too worried about their chances Wednesday.

“I was really surprised, they’re actually very confident. I don’t know if they even watched Game 6,” he said. “I guess they put their faith in the fact that it’s almost been like two completely different books for this series. … For the life of me, I can’t figure out why it’s been such. Vancouver’s been so bad in Boston and Boston hasn’t been able to punch through here in Vancouver, so I guess that’s what it’s all about, Game 7, you play all year to get home-ice advantage and the fans here, they’re pretty happy that it’s in Vancouver.”

“I think [Vancouver fans] were, almost to a person, disappointed with Luongo’s comments after Game 5,” he said. “Where it really went sideways was the next day at the airport. He had the chance to kind of soften the blow a little bit and say, ‘You know, it’s not really what I was trying to say, this is what I was trying to say …’ But he didn’t do it, so that’s one thing. And then you come out and you last eight minutes in Game 6, you know, you get torched.

“I don’t think the fans here are really thrilled with that. I do know there’s no player I can think of on either team that gets scrutinized more in their hometown than Luongo. I can’t think of a Bruin player who would be under as much heat as Luongo is here. And not just in this series. Almost since the day he’s been there.”

‘This is not a typical series, certainly not a typical Stanley Cup final,” Fraser said. “We’ve seen such crazy, bizarre things go on, and the officials have certainly been under a lot of scrutiny. There has been some inconsistencies for sure, from my perspective. They need to make sure they are well prepared and call that first penalty that happens, otherwise they’re going to be batting uphill all night.’

Fraser was asked about Game 7s and if the referees don’t call as many penalties as in other games.

‘It’s got to be imagined,” he said of that perception. “The players will dictate what the officials do and how they respond. That being said, the officials have to respond appropriately. I found in most Game 7s, the players just want to play. All the stuff that happened in the previous six games is over, it’s forgotten, now it’s do or die. … This is the kind of game where one call, one penalty can make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.”

When asked about the Johnny Boychuk hit that knocked out Mason Raymond for the rest of the series, Fraser said he didn’t feel like it was deserving of a suspension. “The Vancouver fans are furious,” Fraser said. “That was a normal, acceptable kind of play. Twenty seconds in, Johnny fork-hooked the legs of Raymond. It should have been a two-minute hooking or interference penalty. That was it. Once he turned him and their momentum carried him into the boards, it was an awkward position, that’s all it was. There was no suspension deserved.”

If the Canucks were hoping that Brad Marchand would wilt as a rookie under the pressure of his first playoff experience, they obviously did not judge or scout him nearly close enough.

And there’s no reason to think Marchand is about to crumble under the pressure of the first Stanley Cup finals Game 7 in Bruins history.

“We have to make sure that we have a good start. And they just seem to get so much momentum and energy off their crowd and we just have to find a way to counter that and come out strong,” said Marchand sounding every bit the veteran of 24 playoff games.

When he scored in the Game 3 blowout of the Canucks, he referred to the fact that he is considered the modern-day “rat” of the Bruins, a nickname lovingly bestowed on Ken Linseman for being the bur in the side of every opponent. It’s a nickname that he continues to wear with pride as he proved again to the Canucks on Monday.

When he wheeled in and took a puck off the boards from Mark Recchi he showed no hesitation snapping off a wrister that beat Roberto Luongo over the goalie’s left shoulder just 5:31 into Game 6.

“I was there, it was a good shot but I have to make that save,” Luongo said. “He put it where he wanted but I have to make a save there.”

“We weren’t too worried about that in here,” Marchand said of Luongo’s talk after Game 5. “He can say what he wants to say. We were just trying to focus on playing this game so we got a couple early, and you know, obviously they switched the goaltenders up. Obviously he’s bounced back every game and I expect the same thing back in Vancouver.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Bruins have done a great job shutting down Vancouver’s power play this series, as they’ve held the league’s best man advantage to a 1-for-16 showing. Not only did they keep the Canucks scoreless on their eight power plays in Game 3, but the Bruins netted a pair of shorthanded goals — one from Brad Marchand and one from Daniel Paille.

On Wednesday, Paille said it’s important for the Bruins penalty killers to not get caught up in trying to score while shorthanded. He said they can’t force plays that could result in them being caught out of position.

“I don’t think that was the plan,” Paille said of being aggressive and getting shorthanded goals. “I think it obviously turned out that way, and we just kind of went with it. Fortunately it helped us in the end. It has cost us in the past, so we don’t want to do that too much.”

Marchand, who tied for third in the NHL with five shorthanded goals during the regular season, agreed with Paille and said the key for him is to just take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

“I just think a lot of it’s luck, a lot of lucky bounces,” Marchand said. “You get opportunities if the pucks hops over sticks and you get breakaways and stuff like that. If you saw a lot of the goals I scored shorthanded, they’re very fluky, pucks popping up behind the net in open cages. So a lot of it’s just lucky bounces.”

As far as Paille goes, Claude Julien said he’d be happy if him and linemate Gregory Campbell just keep doing what they’ve been doing. The duo has made a formidable penalty-kill unit all season for the Bruins.

“We’ve liked them there since the start of they year. They’ve been great penalty killers,” Julien said. “When Dan is skating, he does a really good job pressuring the D and makes it hard for them to break out cleanly. Certainly his speed is great. Turnovers and scoring opportunities as well.

“Gregory has been a great penalty killer because he’s willing to block shots. You get a second and third effort from him all the time. Those guys have been really good for us. Whenever they didn’t get an opportunity to play much as a fourth line, you could certainly rely on them heavily to help you out through the penalty kill.”

In one of the more physical, tense and nasty Stanley Cup final games in recent memory, the Bruins hammered the Canucks, 8-1, Monday night in Game 3 and now trail Vancouver, 2 games-to-1.

The physical play began with a shot to the head of Nathan Horton by Aaron Rome just over five minutes into the contest. Horton left on a stretcher after his neck was immobilized. He reported having feeling in all extremities and was taken to Massachusetts General for observation. The nastiness reached a new level in the third when Shawn Thornton was ejected via a 10-minute misconduct while three more Bruins followed. Rome was ejected along with three other Canucks in the third, as the Bruins poured it on with four goals in the second and four in the third.

“We had a good game but we were really looking to send a message and we wanted to get back in the series,” Brad Marchand said. “They had a pretty commanding lead there. We knew it was going to be a big game tonight and we were just hoping to get back in the series.

“Any playoff series it’s a battle out there. We’re fighting for something we wanted our whole lives. It’s going to be a battle every game. It’s going to look like that. I think it’s just going to get chippier as series goes on.”

Vancouver’s Green Men, Force and Sully, stopped by the WEEI studio for a visit with Dennis & Callahan Monday morning while in Boston for Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

The two Canucks fans clad in spandex bodysuits made a name for themselves by annoying opposing players in the penalty box at Rogers Arena, but the NHL restricted their behavior after they became cult favorites.

“The NHL directly told us: ‘No more handstands, you can’t touch the glass.’ We were told we were not allowed to agitate the players,” Sully explained. “So, we just have to step up our game and be more creative. It seems to be working. We’re getting under a few people’s skin.”

Diminutive Bruins forward Brad Marchand engaged in a feud with the pair last week. “Marchand gave us a couple of chirps, I got doused with some water,” Sully explained. “You get that when you ask if he’s sitting on phone books.”

Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, on the other hand, enjoyed the Green Men’s tribute to Bruins legend Cam Neely‘s acting career. “We had the Cam Neely ‘Sea Bass’ from ‘Dumb and Dumber’ reference ‘ the trucker caps,” Force explained. “Seidenberg appreciated that. He said he’d pass that along to Cam Neely.”